Why Didn't Minnesota Democrats Ban Assault Weapons When They Controlled The Legislature?

By Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer

September 8, 2025

Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers entered the 2023 legislative session with a majority in both chambers and a pair of gun control bills high on their list of priorities: universal background checks for firearm purchases and a “red flag” law, which allows judges to confiscate guns from people who are a danger to themselves or others.

They succeeded in passing both priorities, plus a few other gun control policies, all without Republican support.

Democrats stopped short of banning semiautomatic military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, like those used by the shooter who fired more than 100 rounds into Annunciation Church in Minneapolis last week, killing two students and injuring 21 others.

Following that shooting, Gov. Tim Walz said he will call lawmakers back to the Capitol early to consider those bans and potentially other gun control legislation.

These firearms were banned federally from 1994 to 2004, but states have since been left to their own devices to figure out their own legislation on assault weapons and 10 have done so. There is some evidence that banning high-capacity magazines and assault weapons reduces deaths in mass shootings.

(Gun rights advocates criticize the term “assault weapons,” arguing that the definition is largely based on aesthetics rather than function; Minnesota law defines 17 firearm models and their offshoots as “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons,” including AK-47s and AR-15s.)

But the odds of gun control legislation passing are worse now that Democrats have lost control of the House and Senate, pending special elections. Republicans have 67 members in the House, while Democrats have 66 following the June assassination of Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus leader Melissa Hortman. Any gun control legislation would need bipartisan support in a special session to pass.

“I’m going to need some Republicans to break with the orthodoxy and say that we need to do something on guns,” Walz said at a news conference this week.

Gov. Tim Walz, on Sept. 2, 2025, said he will call a special session for lawmakers to vote on gun control measures after two children were killed and another 21 wounded at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis last week. (Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer)

So why didn’t Democrats ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines when they controlled the Legislature?

In 2023, Democratic lawmakers had bills to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines as well as new requirements that guns be stored safely and reported lost or stolen in a timely manner.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, introduced an assault weapons ban in 2023 but DFL leaders didn’t forward the legislation for a hearing. He said Democrats for a long time have been scared to talk about gun control and are worried about their reelection prospects if they take a stand on stricter gun measures.

“Democratic politicians are still in the old mindset that it could hurt them to talk about gun violence. I happen to believe that regardless of public opinion, the public respects people who are willing to talk about the tough issues,” Marty said.

Similarly, in the House, DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long of Minneapolis said in a press conference after the shooting that he had drafted a bill banning semiautomatic military-style assault weapons in 2023, but never introduced it.

“(It) felt like the right decision to try to focus on taking that really big, important first step on gun violence, and I think we’re ready to take even bigger steps now,” Long said.

Those bills were unlikely to pass, even had they received hearings.

At least three Democratic senators — Grant Hauschild of Hermantown, Rob Kupec of Moorhead and Judy Seeberger of Afton — said in 2023 they wouldn’t support any gun control measures other than the red flag law and universal background checks.

Senator Grant Hauschild listens to a bill reading during the regular legislative session Monday, March 27, 2023. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Last year, the House passed legislation requiring safe storage and the reporting of lost or stolen guns. The bills never came up for a vote in the Senate. All three did vote to pass a ban on binary triggers and increase penalties for straw purchases.

The three senators have remained quiet on the issue of gun control since the school shooting.

Hauschild and Seeberger did not return the Reformer’s calls for this story. Kupec declined an interview.

In an unrelated press conference Thursday, Seeberger was asked whether she would support an assault weapons ban, and she said she’s reviewing proposals.

“We need to get together and figure out what we can pass. We can’t do anything without each other, and so it’s going to be important for all of us to speak,” Seeberger said.

The resistance from Hauschild and Kupec, among just a handful of Democrats representing greater Minnesota, reflects a rural-urban divide over guns.

A 2022 MinnPost poll found that a slight majority of Minnesotans — 54% — supported banning “assault-style weapons.” The topline number belies an urban-rural divide; 51% of rural Minnesotans opposed an assault weapons ban, while 69% of urban residents supported a ban. The same poll found that a slight majority of rural Minnesotans also oppose bans on high-capacity magazines.

Walz has noted the public broadly supports assault weapons bans and suggested Republicans would risk public backlash by voting against the proposals in a special session. But a special session would force difficult votes for members of his own party, too.

“Some of these votes are not easy for members, and members can only make so many difficult votes at a time,” said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, who chairs the public safety committee. “These are close bills. So we got done the two biggest, most far reaching and impactful ones that we thought we could accomplish, and let the other one sit for another day.”

Republicans remain uninterested in new gun laws with Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson calling a potential special session a “partisan stunt.”

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, was evasive when asked if her caucus would support an assault weapons ban or any other gun control proposal: “I can’t really say whether or not we would be for or against something without seeing what the proposal is.”

Her caucus released a “school safety agenda” on Thursday in response to the Annunciation shooting that didn’t include any proposals on gun control. Instead, they called for increased funding for school safety at private schools, boosting funding for more mental health treatment beds and increasing penalties for repeat firearm offenders. Their agenda also includes reversing a conversion therapy ban for minors.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..